Practice Areas — Johnson & Partners Advocates, LLP

Entertainment & Intellectual Property

Protecting, commercialising and enforcing the rights behind creative work.

We provide specialised counsel in entertainment law and intellectual property, acting for artists, creators, performers, producers, media houses, brands and creative-industry businesses. Our work covers copyright, trademarks, licensing, publishing, music and film production, talent management, endorsements, sponsorships, royalties and intellectual property transactions and disputes. Creative value is contractual before it is cultural. Ownership splits agreed casually at the start of a project decide who earns from it a decade later, and rights granted without territory, term or revenue discipline are difficult to recover. We structure those positions early, then hold them through exploitation, renegotiation and enforcement. Our approach combines legal precision with a working understanding of how the creative and entertainment industries actually operate, from studio and production practice to distribution, collecting societies and brand partnerships. Clients keep control of their intellectual assets while realising their full commercial value.

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Alternative Dispute Resolution

Arbitration, mediation and negotiated settlement for high-value commercial disputes.

We maintain a robust Alternative Dispute Resolution practice covering national and international arbitration, mediation and negotiated settlement. We advise and represent clients in complex, high-value disputes arising from commercial transactions, corporate relationships, contractual arrangements, investments, construction, infrastructure, property and cross-border engagements. Our work runs the full arc of a dispute. It begins with pre-dispute advisory and dispute avoidance, extends to the drafting and review of arbitration and dispute resolution clauses, the commencement and conduct of arbitral proceedings and representation before tribunals, and continues through mediation, settlement negotiation, recognition and enforcement of awards and any related court proceedings. We are strategic, commercially informed and solution-oriented. The objective is to protect our clients' legal and commercial interests while achieving outcomes that are efficient, confidential and sustainable. In international matters, we work within the applicable cross-border legal and institutional frameworks to navigate disputes involving multiple jurisdictions.

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Banking & Finance

Capital, credit and cross-border financing engineered for African markets.

We advise lenders, borrowers and insurers on the full spectrum of banking, finance and insurance transactions across Kenya and the wider region. Our work spans syndicated facilities and project finance, acquisition and trade finance, bank-assurance, derivatives, and the regulatory licensing and security perfection that hold every deal together. Clients come to us when transactions are commercially significant or technically demanding, where missteps in documentation, registration or regulator engagement could unwind value already negotiated. We bring the institutional discipline of a full-service firm, the responsiveness of a partner-led team, and a regional perspective shaped by years of cross-border execution in East Africa. We sit at the intersection of capital and regulation. That dual fluency lets us anticipate where the Central Bank of Kenya, the Insurance Regulatory Authority and the Capital Markets Authority will push back, structure around it early, and close deals that hold up to scrutiny long after signing.

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Tax

Strategic tax counsel for complex transactions, disputes and KRA engagement.

We help corporates, multinationals and high-net-worth individuals plan, structure and defend tax positions across Kenya. Our work covers transfer pricing, indirect tax, withholding and excise, cross-border treaty positions, and the full lifecycle of KRA engagement from audit through objection, Tribunal and appeal. Tax in Kenya has shifted from compliance exercise to commercial battleground. The KRA is more assertive, the Tax Appeals Tribunal more demanding on evidence, and the policy landscape moves on every Finance Act. Our role is to give clients positions that are commercially viable, technically defensible and ready for the scrutiny they will attract. We combine transactional tax structuring with seasoned tribunal advocacy. The same partners who design the holding-company architecture stand up in the Tribunal when the KRA challenges it years later, so advice is never theoretical and litigation is never disconnected from the deal.

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Corporate & Commercial

End-to-end counsel for the lifecycle of a modern African business.

From incorporation and joint ventures to M&A, governance and exit, we deliver an integrated corporate and commercial practice that aligns with how clients actually do business in Kenya and across the region. We act for founders building their first institution, established groups consolidating market position, and international investors entering East Africa for the first time. Our strength is sequencing. We see how today's shareholders' agreement constrains tomorrow's exit, how a casually drafted board mandate becomes a deadlock years later, and how foreign-investment structures interact with tax, regulator approvals and immigration. We design for the whole arc, not just the immediate transaction. Partners lead every mandate end-to-end. Clients get senior judgement at the moments that matter, not handed down through layers of associates, and the same team that negotiates the deal stays through closing, integration and the post-completion disputes that often define real value.

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Employment Law

Workforce counsel for employers operating to global standards.

We advise on every stage of the employment relationship. That includes drafting contracts and handbooks, designing workplace policies that survive regulator and ELRC scrutiny, handling sensitive workforce restructurings, defending claims at the Employment & Labour Relations Court, and managing senior executive separations with absolute discretion. The Employment Act, the Labour Relations Act and a decade of robust ELRC jurisprudence have raised the bar on what employers must document, consult and prove. Restructurings that looked clean a decade ago now generate multi-year tails. Our job is to keep workforce decisions both commercially sound and legally defensible, before the dispute, not after. We work with HR and people teams as partners, not gatekeepers. Where investigations are needed, we run them with the rigour expected by boards and regulators. Where separation is the right outcome, we structure it so it closes cleanly. Where claims are filed, our trial advocates take them through to judgment.

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Intellectual Property

Securing, defending and commercialising the ideas that build businesses.

We combine insightful advice and modern tools to help clients obtain, defend, enforce and exploit intellectual property. Our work spans trademarks, copyright, patents and designs, technology transfer, anti-counterfeiting and the increasingly important interface between IP and data protection. For brand owners, IP is a balance-sheet asset that needs portfolio discipline, regional coverage and a credible enforcement story. For technology businesses, it is the licensing architecture that determines whether innovation is monetised or eroded. For founders, it is the protection that gives investors confidence at the next round. We advise across all three. Our practice combines INTA-affiliated trademark depth with CIPP/E-level privacy fluency, a combination that is rare in the Kenyan market and increasingly essential as data, brand and software converge in commercial value.

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Conveyancing & Real Estate

Discreet, end-to-end real estate counsel for serious property transactions.

From single-asset transfers to large-scale developments and REIT structures, we deliver conveyancing with the rigour and confidentiality expected by institutional investors, family offices and private clients. Our team handles title diligence, structured financing, stamp duty engagement and bulk completions with the same discipline regardless of deal size. Real estate in Kenya rewards attention to detail. Overlapping titles, rectification histories, succession layers and unregistered interests can sit beneath an otherwise clean transaction for years. We surface those issues early, build remediation into the deal timetable, and close on terms that protect the buyer long after handover. We act for developers structuring off-plan releases, REITs and funds building income portfolios, lenders perfecting security on landed assets, and private clients transferring legacy property between generations. Each mandate gets a dedicated transaction coordinator and a partner who stays close to completion.

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Dispute Resolution

Considered, strategic and relentless when the matter goes to court.

Our disputes practice handles complex commercial litigation, arbitration and mediation across Kenya. The work ranges from urgent injunctive relief and judicial review to multi-party recovery actions, from shareholder and joint-venture disputes to high-value contractual claims and regulator challenges. We approach every matter with a clear preference for early, commercially intelligent resolution. The first deliverable on a new dispute is usually a candid case assessment: the strengths, the soft spots, the realistic settlement zone, and the cost-and-time profile of taking it the distance. Clients use that assessment to make a real commercial decision rather than drift into expensive litigation by default. When the matter does need to be tried, our advocates are ready. We appear regularly in the High Court, the Commercial and Tax Division, the Court of Appeal and in domestic and international arbitration under LCIA, ICC, NCIA and UNCITRAL rules.

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Alternative Justice Systems

Honouring Article 159 of the Constitution , traditional, informal and restorative justice.

In line with Article 159(1)(c)–(d) of the Constitution of Kenya, we work alongside communities, councils of elders and public institutions to design and implement traditional, informal and restorative mechanisms that complement formal courts. Our practice sits at the meeting point of customary legitimacy and constitutional standards. Alternative Justice Systems work best when they are designed with care, run with discipline and documented in a way the formal courts can recognise. We bring the policy fluency, community trust and procedural rigour to make that happen. We are co-authors of national AJS materials and have helped shape the Judiciary's framework on the ground. Our AJS work supports community land and resource disputes, gender-sensitive process design, restorative outcomes in matters that would otherwise overwhelm the formal courts, and capacity building for elders, judicial officers and project teams operating in customary contexts.

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